House Democrats on Tuesday launched a long-shot effort to shield Medicaid and food stamps from GOP cuts. 

The Democrats are pushing a procedural gambit, known as a discharge petition, that would force a House vote on legislation protecting the two low-income benefit programs from cuts under President Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

The petition requires 218 signatures to be successful, meaning Democrats will need at least a handful of Republicans to buck their own leadership and sign on. That’s a tough lift given the intense pressure GOP lawmakers are facing to back Trump’s agenda, including sweeping tax cuts, and give the president a win amid the economic turmoil sparked by his global tariffs. 

Still, a number of moderate Republicans have insisted publicly that they won’t support a package that cuts benefits under Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Democrats are urging those centrists to back their words by signing the discharge petition. 

“We don’t need 100 percent of House Republicans. We don’t need a majority of them. We need 2 percent,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (Pa.), senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told reporters in the Capitol. “There have been far more than 2 percent on TV who’ve been saying, ‘Oh, no. I would never cut Medicaid. I would never cut SNAP. Not me.’” 

“OK, prove it.”

A 1974 law prohibits Congress from using an obscure procedure, known as reconciliation, to cut benefits under Social Security. Last month, top Democrats had introduced legislation that would expand that prohibition to include benefits under Medicaid and SNAP. The discharge petition is designed to force a vote on that Democratic bill. 

Boyle is the lead sponsor of the discharge petition, which went live on the House floor on Tuesday morning. By mid-afternoon, it had gathered 93 signatures, all of them Democratic.

Separately, three moderate House Republicans introduced a similar resolution on Monday formally voicing their opposition to benefit cuts under Medicaid and SNAP. The “point of order” resolution — introduced by Reps. Zach Nunn (Iowa), Don Bacon (Neb.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) — would prevent the House from using reconciliation to cut benefits for certain beneficiaries of the Medicaid and SNAP programs, including children, seniors, pregnant women, or people with disabilities.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) dismissed the GOP effort on Tuesday, saying House rules dictate that the “point of order” won’t become viable for months. 

“The point of order that those three Republicans filed won’t ripen until at least 30 legislative days,” Jeffries said. “It’s not a serious effort if the Republican Speaker says he’s aiming to get this done by Memorial Day.”